Questioning Contact Improvisation 质疑接触即兴
Questioning Contact Improvisation
质疑接触即兴
文/Keith Hennessy
译/尹浩龙
Published by Circo Zero, San Francisco, 2018
Re-published by In Dance, October 1, 2019
Circo Zero于2018年在旧金山第一次发表
2019年10月1日重新发表于In Dance
上个月参加了美国Earth Dance主办的三天的Future of CI会议，其中有一个Panel讨论了接触即兴及其政治性，舞蹈艺术家Nita Little，Keith Hennessy谈到了很多在七十年代及八十年代初的历史，也延伸讲到了那个时代的社会思潮和朋克运动，同时我也在读Cynthia J. Novack作为一个人类学家在《Sharing the Dance》这本书记录下来的历史，我突然意识到我们在这个现代的语境中的练习对于这个历史是完全忽略的，这个无视和不表达也在塑造着我们对于接触即兴的理解和诠释。在中文语境中，接触即兴的传播可能是在一个二十一世纪开始，甚至是在一个2010年至2020年前后的这么一个时期开始被认识和接触到的舞蹈形式，没有太多人会把这么一个练习和历史及政治性联系到一起。我想试图唤醒一些对于这个历史的记忆和关注，以及这个练习除了个体身体性以外的一个更大的社会意图，我觉得这是接触即兴很重要的一个方面。所以翻译了这篇Keith Hennessy的文章《质疑接触即兴》，最早是一个Zine的形式出版的，这篇文章在我们所处的时代去探讨了很多相关的议题，虽然我可能不同意所有作者的观点，但我喜欢这个声音和方向，这也算是在我的课程中慢慢开启这个讨论的一扇新的窗户，在技巧和身体层面之外，我想要去探讨这些议题，哲学，个体，性别，平等，公正，政治，这些议题在我去年第一次在德国参加Touch & Play之后就一直在脑海中激荡。在Future of CI会议中，也有欧洲的现代舞者提出了在英文的强势性（大多数接触即兴的讨论都是以英文语境表达的），以至于欧洲舞者都会觉得一种用母语（意大利语，西班牙语，法语，德语，波兰语等）表达的害羞性，我也觉得中文语境的思索和回复也是这种强势的再平衡，这也是在翻译，表达，以及建立www.cidanceresearch.com这个网站的意义所在吧。
—译者，浩龙
INTRODUCTION
介绍
For more than 15 years I’ve been working to understand and to explain how the social contexts of contact improvisation (CI) remain predominantly white and heterosexual despite the radical potential of the dancing and the utopian intentions of many CI dancers. The whiteness and gender norms in CI parallel many other predominantly white alternative cultures developed since the 1960s (e.g., yoga in the West, Burning Man, rave cultures, Radical Faeries, new age and tantra scenes…), which in turn parallel the development of neoliberalism and the backlash against the social and political changes of the 60s. The central question of my PhD dissertation was:
过去的十五年来，我一直在试图理解和解释一个现实，许多接触即兴舞者都有着乌托邦式的憧憬，并在舞蹈中不断探索激进改变的可能性，但这个舞蹈形式的社会表现依然是一个白人和异性恋主导的环境。接触即兴中的白人和性别常态和六十年代以来同一时间发展的其他主要白人非主流文化一样（比如西方现代瑜伽，Burning Man火人节，Rave文化，Radical Faeries仙子文化，新时代和谭崔现象等），在这些文化发展的同时，新自由主义（neoliberalism）也在同时发展，对于六十年代的社会和政治变革而言，这是一种倒退，在我的博士论文中，我提出的一个中心议题是：
How do predominantly white alternative cultures defeat their stated intentions and wishes by reproducing mainstream or hegemonic injustices?
大多数的白人非主流文化如何在发展过程中，背离他们宣扬的意图和愿望，重新制造着主流或霸权统治的非正义？
At almost every CI gathering or festival some well-intentioned person asks, as if for the first time, “Why are there so few Black people here?” or “Where are the people of color?” Resisting rigorous self-reflection and political engagement, we fail to satisfactorily respond to the question. And then we go back to dancing, as if asking the question was enough, and as if the lack of an articulate response affirms the group identity as creative explorers. Recently, especially since the emergence and mobilization of Black Lives Matter, the way that race, racism, and white supremacy get addressed in CI contexts is changing, for the better.
在每一个接触即兴的聚会或艺术节，总会有人带着善良的意图去提出这个问题，好像这是第一次提出一样，“为什么这个场域没有黑人？”，或者“其他有色人种（people of color）在哪里？” 我们没能为这个问题提出一个让人满意的答案，即便我们进行了无数的自我反思及政治参与。之后，我们又回到舞蹈当中，好像这个问题只要提出就足够了，好像无力得到一个答案这个事实本身给团队的“创意探索者”这个群体标签一个肯定。最近，特别是Black Lives Matter的抗议行为开始之后，种族，种族歧视，以及白人至上主义的议题在接触即兴社群中也有了很多的讨论，改变和进步。
No one ever declared that the intention of contact improvisation was to eradicate white supremacy and patriarchy. But how many times has someone linked CI dancing (or Modern dance, or dance in general) to freedom, to feminism, to peace, to community, to creating an alternative to the ugly aspects of mainstream cultures? My writing is not intended as condemnation. It is an inquiry. It would be too easy to reduce my observations and questions to an indictment of CI as racist and heterosexist. Early CI dancers rejected institutionalization and encouraged egalitarianism. I am offering this analysis with the same intentions.
接触即兴一直是一个反对白人至上主义及男权政治的练习，这一点无可置疑。人们喜欢把接触即兴（或者现代，或者舞蹈）和自由，女权，和平，社群联系起来，创造一个和主流文化的丑陋面不同的异类文化，我们写作的目的不是责备，而是一个问询。把接触即兴的观察和问题简单归结为种族歧视或者异性恋主义者（heterosexist）是不负责的，早起接触即兴的发展拒绝掉了机构化，并鼓励平等主义（egalitarianism），我也想在这篇文章中做同样的事情。
The work of Black, African American, POC/non-white, queer feminist, and post-colonial writers and activists haunt and inspire this writing. They move me to challenge the claims and assumptions of too many CI practitioners, teachers and writers that contact improvisation is freeing, healing, and good for all people; claims that ignore or dismiss difference, pain, or critique. I reject the frequent claim of CI dancers who, when dancing, can’t see skin color, gender or difference of any kind. I reject naïve and poorly considered claims of the body as universal, of dance as universal.
黑人，非裔美国人，有色人种/非白人，酷儿女权运动者，后殖民时期的作家，活动家的作品激发了我的观点，他们在挑战许多接触即兴练习者，老师及作者的观点和假想，那就是接触即兴是一个自由，疗愈，并且适合所有人的活动，这个观点忽略，或者无视差异，痛苦及评判。许多舞者在跳舞的时候可以忽略肤色议题，性别议题或者任何形式的差异性，并在幼稚地宣扬一种身体是有普世性，舞蹈是有普世性的观点，我对这些现象都持拒绝和反对的态度。
THE QUESTION
问题
Dominant cultures maintain power by naming Others while avoiding naming themselves. The white liberal question, “Why are there so few Black people here?” reflects this external gaze and helps to invisibilize whiteness and the supremacist structures that shape both mainstream and alternative cultures. So let’s flip the question from, “Where are the people of color?” to, “How is this dance exclusionary?” or “How does this dance space reproduce white supremacy?” Let’s put the focus on white people to better understand how whiteness is produced and reproduced. Too many white people ask, “Why are there no – or so few – Black people” as if the failure has been one of promotion or outreach rather than considering the impacts of colonialism and structural racism on all dancing and on the choices people make or cannot imagine making.
主流文化保存权利的方式是给其他人起名字，但避免给自己起名字。白人自由派提出的问题是，“为什么这里没有黑人”？，这个提问反应了一个外在的凝视，在我们看主流和非主流文化中的白人主义和权利不平等的架构上起到了屏障作用，所以我提议，我们可以把这个问题反过来问，与其问“有色人种在哪里？”，我们问，“这个舞蹈如何在排斥他人？”，“这个舞蹈空间如何在重新鼓励白人至上主义？”我们把注意力的焦点再次放回到白人本身，这个概念最早是如何产生的，又是如何被再次鼓吹起来的。太多的白人在问，为什么这里没有，或者太少有，黑人“，这个表达好像在说这个失败是和外联及推广有关系，而不是去深入思考殖民主义，结构化的种族歧视（structural racism）和舞蹈形式的关系，人们如何做出选择，或者如何无法想象自己做出选择。
Progressive and regressive practices can be happening at the same time, in the same room, at any given jam. Contact improv is often praised for its resonance with feminist and LGBT/queer goals of troubling male supremacy and complicating distinct gender roles. Same gender intimacy and female agency are common in contact improvisation’s dancing duets. Male yielding and female strength are also core values or practices that shape the dancing. And yet CI social scenes too frequently espouse essentialist new age distinctions between women and men, between female and male energies, that further alienate queer and non-binary dancers who might already feel awkward or unwelcome. Simultaneously, the pleasure seeking hetero male is empowered in most CI spaces, which results in a steady stream of complaints by women about young and middle-aged men who exploit the ‘free body’ culture of the dancing to manipulate or betray consent. Every jam has its story of the ‘problem man’ who has had to be disciplined or ostracized after repeatedly creeping women out or betraying their boundaries, but until recently very few jams have taken collective responsibility for this sexist dynamic.
进步和退步可以在同时发生，在同一个空间发生，在任何一个舞酱发生。接触即兴受到很多女权运动家和LGBT/酷儿的肯定，因为他们都在质疑男权至上以及性别角色的划分。同性间的亲密及女性的主导在接触即兴的双人舞结构中都是常见的。男性让步，女性表达力量都是塑造这个舞蹈的核心元素，但在讨论中，我们还是常常看到我们在讨论男性和女性，两个能量，这些讨论都在进一步让酷儿及非二元性别（non-binary）舞者有些无所适从，或者感到无法找到自己在空间中的位置。同时，在接触即兴舞酱空间中，追求愉悦的异性恋男性是被认可的，这个现象导致了总是有女性在抱怨年轻或中年的男性利滥用这个自由的身体文化，并跨越自己的边界，每个舞酱空间都有那个“有点奇怪的男士”，让女士感到不舒服，并需要组织者单独与之谈话，但即便是今天，也很少有舞酱空间对这个议题有一个确定而积极的回应。
This zine presents questions with no answers as an admission that I am far from being able to propose an articulate program for un-performing white and male privilege. I answer questions with more questions, hoping to activate the readers’ answers, responses, and further questions.
这本小册子提出了一些问题，也没有给出答案，是我在试图挑战白人至上主义及男性权利的过程中提出来的思考框架，我用新的问题去回答已有的问题，希望去鼓励读者的答案，回音以及更多的问题。
QUESTIONS
问题
Is contact improvisation white and straight?
接触即兴是一个白人和异性恋的活动吗？
Are most of the dancers white and the majority of the duets male/female?
大多数的舞者都是白人，大多数的结构都是男性和女性的双人舞吗？
Do we recognize or erase the people of color, the queers, and the non-normative bodies when we say mostly white and mostly straight?
当我们的表达主要是关注白人和异性恋关系时，我们认识到，或者忽略有色人种，酷儿，非常态身体吗？
Do these questions limit or liberate the dancing?
这些议题是在限制还是解放我们的舞蹈？
How does the social scene around the dancing influence the dancing?
我们周边的社会环境如何在影响我们的舞蹈？
How do I touch somebody?
我如何触碰他人？
Is it possible to touch each other, across lines of difference, beyond representational frames?
我们彼此的触碰有没有可能超越差异性，超越构建的有代表性的框架？
Is it possible to de-socialize touch?
我们的触碰有没有可能减少社交含义/社会性？
Does contact improvisation produce sites where alternatives of touch, discourse, and imagination can happen?
接触即兴有没有可能创造一个场域，让另一个不同形式的触碰，讨论和想象能发生？
Who is welcome to those sites?
这个场域欢迎谁？
Is anyone NOT welcome?
有什么人是这个场域不欢迎的吗？
“Because if you can’t do it by dancing together, how else can you get past this stuff about being together as humans?”[1]
如果你不能通过共同舞蹈的方式去做，你如何可以作为人生活在一起去处理同样的事情？
What are the multicultural influences on CI?
多文化在接触即兴中的影响是怎样的？
Where does the term “jam” come from?[2]
舞酱（Jam）这个名字来自哪里？
Can we theorize the pelvis’ centrality in contact improvisation as an Africanist aesthetic?[3]
理论上我们可以把接触即兴中对骨盆中心的观点看作是来自非洲的吗？
How do we theorize and historicize the dropped center that Simone Forti learned from copying a Black man dancing in an erotic exchange?
舞蹈家Simone Forti在观看黑人在一个交流情欲的舞蹈中学到的中心下坠，我们如何在理论和历史的层面理解它？
Did you know that Anna Halprin modeled her naturalist walking on Black embodiment?[4]
你知道Anna Halprin把她的自然行走naturalist walking的启发归功自黑人文化？
Did you know that Halprin considered “white walking” to be too stiff and not free?
你知道Anna Halprin表达的观点包括白人的走路方式是僵硬笨拙的，而非自由的吗？
What is the influence of rock n roll and therefore of Africanist music and dance on the arts scenes from which CI emerged?
摇滚乐的影响是什么？非洲音乐和舞蹈对于接触即兴发展有什么影响？
How is the approach of free improvisation linked to jazz, to Black innovation and resistance?
自由即兴的方式如何和爵士乐联系到一起，并和黑人和创新及抵抗联系到一起？
What are the Japanese influences on CI dancing?
日本文化对接触即兴的影响有哪些？
How did Aikido and Zen influence the embodiment and awareness practices of early CI dancers?
合气道及日本禅宗对于早期接触即兴舞者对觉知的理解有什么影响？
How did centuries of Chinese and Japanese philosophies and martial arts practices produce the Aikido roll?
几个世纪来自中国和日本的哲学及武术如何推进了合气道滚这个概念？
How did Western dance, especially CI, change with the introduction of Aikido’s spiraling, yielding, redirecting, flowing?
西方现代舞，从接触即兴开始，如何一步一步介绍了合气道中关于螺旋，沉降让步，重新引导力的方向，以及流动的概念？
How have Buddhist meditation practices influenced the somatic awareness practices taught in CI classes?
佛教的冥想练习如何影响在接触即兴课堂上教学的身心觉知？
How has Taoism, through its healing arts and somatic practices, been syncretized into CI dancing?
道家传统在疗愈及身心的练习方式如何启发并融入接触即兴的舞蹈？
How do Chinese American dancers, especially as CI teachers, influence the cross-cultural development of the dancing?
中国族裔的美国人作为接触即兴老师如何在跨文化发展的方面影响着舞蹈？
When did dancers start sitting in circles?
什么时候舞者开始坐在圈子上讨论交流？
How have Native and Chicanx dancers influenced CI?
本土美洲人和墨西哥族裔美国人舞蹈如何在影响接触即兴？（译者注：作者用了x的后缀，原词有西班牙语的阴阳两性之分，分别是Chicano和Chicana，和下文的Latinx一样，而没有使用Latino和Latina，是一种更鼓励去性别概念化的语法变革和表达。）
How does the dancing change when engaged by queer Latinx femmes?
酷儿拉丁族裔女性如何通过她们的参与影响着接触即兴的发展？
What are the regional and cultural dialects of CI?
地域和文化对接触即兴的影响是怎样的？
How does the dancing shift or hybridize as dancers travel from Beijing to Seattle, from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo, from Freiburg to Berkeley, from Kisingani to Dakar to Ramallah to Melbourne to Kiev…?
当舞者们开始在全世界旅行，这个舞蹈是如何转变的，从北京到西雅图，从布宜诺斯艾利斯到圣保罗，从弗赖堡到伯克利，从基桑加尼到达喀尔，再到拉姆安拉，墨尔本，基辅？
How does a more complicated understanding of CI’s non-European influences transform our understanding of CI and therefore our dancing and therefore ourselves?
一个更复杂的对接触即兴的来自非欧洲元素的影响如何改变我们对其理解，以及我们对舞蹈和自我的理解？
What is the difference between appropriation, fusion, and syncretism?
合适性（appropriation），交融（fusion）及融合主义（syncretism）三者的区别是什么？
What are the settler or colonial dynamics of cultural fusion or hybridity?
什么是殖民者，殖民的文化交融，以及种族的杂交融合？
Is it too late to care about cultural appropriation?
我们现在讨论文化合适性（cultural appropriation）是不是太晚了？
Does decolonization depend on reparations?
去殖民化是不是取决于赔偿？
Can cultural debts be repaid?
文化上的债务是不是可以被偿还？
Can a segregated subculture be politically effective?
隔离的亚文化在政治上是有效的吗？
How do white people who identify as anti-racist or not-racist continue to reproduce privileged and segregated social contexts?
宣扬反种族歧视或者去种族的白人如何继续重新建立优越性及分裂的社会？
Am I too impatient, or was Nina Simone correct in singing out, “Too slow!”?
Is CI a site of political refuge?
我是不是太缺乏耐心，或者说Nina Simone在唱“太慢“（Too slow!）的时候是不是正确的，或者接触即兴可以成为政治的庇护所吗？
Why does it flourish during or immediately following social unrest, national trauma or crisis?
在社会动荡，国家创伤或危机后，为什么接触即兴都会有一个蓬勃的发展？
How does contact improvisation invite or allow a withdrawing from political engagement, a space of retreat and refuge?
接触即兴如何邀请，或者允许一个从政治参与中的退出，一个离开和庇护的空间？
How does the notion of dancing-as-refuge privilege whiteness and middle class access?
舞蹈作为一个逃避的概念如何鼓吹白人至上主义，并为中产阶级的参与提供便利？
How does political dis-engagement allow other kinds of cultural research and social experimentation to flourish?
政治的脱离接触如何允许其他文化研究和社会实验蓬勃发展？
Do CI dancers consider the jam as “safe space” and what does that mean for folks who sense danger, especially with respect to issues of self and collective identity, determination, agency?
接触即兴舞者会把舞酱看作“安全的空间”吗？以及这个概念对于感受到危险的人群来说意味着什么？特别是我们如何尊重自我和集体概念，决定，主体？
If contact is for fugitives or refugees, what are they fleeing?
如果说接触是给逃亡者或者避难者的，他们在逃离什么？
Do you want to talk about consent before dancing?[5]
在舞蹈前，你会想要去讨论共识吗？
Do you want CI teachers and jam organizers to create contexts for learning new practices of clarifying boundaries, non-verbal consent, saying no, and saying yes?
你想要接触即兴老师，组织者创造更多的学习机会，去讨论边界，非言语的共识，拒绝和同意吗？
Does the mention of rape culture in a CI opening circle make you feel more comfortable or more awkward, more willing or more resistant?
在开始圈提到强奸文化会让你觉得更舒服，还是更尴尬，更愿意参与，还是更抵触？
Is massage or cuddling, especially towards the end of the dance, part of your expected CI dance vocabulary?
按摩和亲密拥抱，特别是在舞蹈结束前，是你期待的舞蹈的一个部分和元素吗？
Is all touch OK until someone says no or is it every dancer’s responsibility to listen more closely to non-verbal cues with the intention of avoiding forcing anyone to say no?
在有人异议拒绝前的触碰都是可行的吗？还是每个舞者都有责任仔细倾听非语言的信号，避免强迫任何人去用语言说不。
How do your romantic feelings influence your dancing or the choosing of dance partners?
浪漫的感觉如何在影响你的舞蹈，或者你选择和谁跳舞？
What are the best conditions for nurturing a dance of increasing trust, pleasure, and intimacy?
滋养一个舞蹈，提高彼此信任，愉悦和亲密性的最好条件是什么？
How are men or women or queerly gendered folks reading these questions differently?
男性，女性，酷儿性别的人如何会以不一样的方式阅读这些问题？
How are white and POC dancers reading these questions differently?
白人和有色人种如何会以不一样的方式阅读这些问题？
Can CI be supportive of decolonial or queer…?
接触即兴可以是对去殖民化或酷儿运动的支持吗？
Can an improvised dance of shifting weight (shifting centers) be used to de-center modernity’s Eurocentric norms?
接触即兴的重心转移可以被用来改变现代的欧洲中心化常态吗？
How do we negotiate CI’s hippy tendencies and identities?
我们如何讨论接触即兴的嬉皮一面，及定位？
Is it true that no one is free unless we’re all free?
直到我们所有人都自由的时候，我才是自由的，这是一个真的观点吗？
“What political territories are exposed, broadened, or critiqued through the simple act of two bodies in contact?”[6]
接触的身体这个简单的行动如何揭露，拓宽，批评政治的疆域？
Can CI dance experimentation expand our relational awareness, ethical capacity, and mutual solidarity?
接触即兴的舞蹈的探索如何可以扩展我们关系的觉知，道德的容量，及共同的团结？
What am I doing right now?
我现在在做什么？
Am I listening?
我在聆听吗？
Where is my body?
我的身体在哪里？
Will I yield to this dance of questioning?
我会屈服让步于这个提出问题的舞蹈吗？
[1] Ray Chung. 2015. Personal interview re: dancing in Ukraine and Israel.
[2] DIXON GOTTSCHILD, Brenda. (1996). Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance. Westport CT: Greenwood Press.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Anna Halprin, Ceremony of Us, created with dancers from Watts/Los Angeles, 1969
[5] This question and the following section are adapted from:
GOTTLIEB, SARAH. 2018. “Myths to Break Down: Moving Toward Ethical Communication and Ethical Sexuality in CI.” Published on Contact Improvisation Blog, http://contactimprovblog.com/myths-to-break-down-moving-toward-ethical-communication-and-ethical-sexuality-in-ci/ [6] Scott Wells. 2016. Promo text for Touchy Subjects, co-choreographed by Wells & Hennessy.
Keith Hennessy was born in a mining town in Northern Ontario, Canada, lives in San Francisco, and tours internationally. He is an award-winning performer, choreographer, teacher and organizer. Hennessy directs Circo Zero, a laboratory for live performance that plays with genre and expectation. Rooted in dance, Hennessy’s work embodies a unique hybrid of performance art, music, visual and conceptual art, circus, and ritual.